Commodity Fetishism (Monotheism) and Modern Consumer Society: The Development of Reinterpretation from the 1970s to the 2000s (1970s-2000s)

Commodity Fetishism (Monotheism) and Modern Consumer Society: The Development of Reinterpretation from the 1970s to the 2000s (1970s-2000s)
Commodity fetishism (monotheism), as described by Marx in his Theory of Capital, refers to the phenomenon of covering up the traces of labor behind the commodity and acting as if the thing has autonomous value. This concept was reinterpreted in light of social conditions such as the material affluence and formalization of consumer behavior in Japan in the 1970s and the belief in brands and advertising production since the 1980s. In particular, the tendency for "products to be imbued with personality and stories" has increased, and the structure in which individual subjectivity is defined by consumption has become visible. Marx's theory functioned as a warning bell against the crisis of "human relations being replaced by relations of goods," while the fetishist perspective questioned the structure of self-expression and freedom through consumption. Through cultural-theoretical developments by critics such as Yukito Karatani and Akira Asada, the critique of monotheism has deepe
ned into an "economics of culture" and has been carried over into the digital consumer society of the 21st century.